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RESCUES: EX-BREEDING DOGS – HAVE YOUR SAY

Following the announcement that Neil Parish MP, Chairman of the EFRA Committee has secured a Commons Main Chamber debate this Thursday 30th March, 2017 at 11.30am, we are urging rescues – those who work day and night to save, rehabilitate and rehome the victims of the cruel puppy farm trade – to tell the Government their side of the story.

In order to reach them in time before the debate, emailing them is the preferred route.

These are the Defra Ministers responsible for animal welfare in the UK who need convincing that the third party selling of puppies i.e. in pet shops and by dealers is what enables puppy farming to flourish, and must be banned.

Andrea Leadsom – andrea.leadsom.mp@parliament.uk

Lord Gardiner – contactholmember@parliament.uk

In your email, please cc in the members of the EFRA Committee who undertook the inquiry into animal welfare and made such a strong recommendation to the Government to ban puppies in pet shops. They visited a puppy farm in Wales that sells puppies via pet shops and needed no further convincing that the trade must be banned.

Because we understand the pressures on your time, we have provided a template letter for your convenience. You can use this to base your email on and we suggest adding your own personal message to it.

As someone who understands the problem so well, please also write to your own MP urging them to attend Thursday’s debate and supporting the EFRA recommendation. You’ll find your MP’s contact details at the Find Your MP link, alternatively you can write to your MP via the automated Write To Themwebsite.

As a rescue that often takes in ex puppy farming breeding dogs, we see first hand how poorly so many of these dogs have been treated – whether they have come from licensed or unlicensed establishments – you would be hard-pressed to spot any difference.

Too often the condition that these dogs arrive in are heartbreaking. They require a great deal of time and patience because they are psychologically shut down and afraid. They also require costly veterinary treatment to either make them more comfortable or to alleviate health conditions that have been left untreated during their time as breeding dogs. We then need to find foster homes to take them in until they are well enough to be adopted by caring members of the public who understand their special needs.

Puppy farming is being enabled by the ability for these establishments to sell poorly bred puppies to the public via puppy dealers and pet shops. If puppy farmers had to sell directly to the public, they would never get away with housing breeding dogs in such terrible conditions.

The sale of puppies by licensed third parties including pet shops and by dealers in 2017 is unacceptable, as it has been scientifically proven to be detrimental to their physical and behavioural health – leading to long term problems for owners. The third party trade is also the primary reason for the existence of cruel puppy farms – where dogs are produced as a cash crop with no thought for their wellbeing; again this link is indisputable. Retailing puppies through licensed pet shops reduces our most valued canine companions merely to the status of commodities, encourages irresponsible impulse purchasing and is impossible to regulate to an appropriate standard. This leaves animals and consumers vulnerable to unscrupulous sellers and simply cannot be justified on any grounds.

Equally, because these dogs are so often genetically challenged, they are producing high volumes of puppies that will inherit poor health and behaviour issues that will predispose those puppies to being surrendered to rescues or dumped in council pounds by members of the public who are unable or unwilling to keep them for life. It has become a viscious circle and one that is left to small, cash-poor rescues like ours to have to pick up the pieces.

I urge DEFRA to reconsider its previous decision to dismiss the calls from the EFRA Committee to ban the selling of dogs by third parties. We understand that a clause allowing rescues to continue adopting dogs and puppies to the public will overcome any obstacles for our rescue work and is very easy to write into the new legislation.

The situation is dire for the dogs and for rescues who are working so hard to help so many dogs today. It is a situation that only you have the power to change right now.